By Cam Lucadou-Wells
LIONS clubs members have pitched in to help out a Hampton Park family.
The day-long working bee was a godsend for the Youngs, who have gone through a living hell with their 13-year-old son and brother Connor.
For the past four months, the family has been crowd-funding for vital equipment for Connor.
He requires $40,000 for a new wheelchair, a comfortable chair for relaxation, a hydraulic ramp for the family car, a modified car seat and a shower chair to live full-time at home.
Aside from visiting his family once a week, Connor is mainly confined to respite care in Seaford.
Narre Warren Lions Club president Lorraine Riches said the service clubs, in hearing of Connor’s plight, didn’t have the required funds to directly help.
But members still pitched in to lift the family’s spirits.
On 11 September, members from four Lions and Lionesses Clubs in Narre Warren, Endeavour Hills and Hampton Park held a day-long working bee to clean out and weeds in the Youngs’ overgrown backyard.
The clubs also invited one of Connor’s sisters Caitlin on a school holiday camp at Licola, and donated a family pass to Myuna Farm.
Connor’s mum Belinda was full of praise for the Lions members’ “amazing” kindness – which has cleared the backyard for the kids to play in.
“It’s a weight lifted off my husband and my shoulders. We just didn’t have time to sort it out.”
It was a lift for the family, not least Connor who endures a “shopping list” of medical conditions.
Connor can neither walk nor talk due to debilitating cerebral palsy.
He stays six days a week at a respite house because he can no longer be lifted manually into bed, the car, bath, shower and his wheelchair due to his spinal fusion.
Life-saving surgery was required in April due to his spine collapsing at a 133-degree angle over six months.
Connor’s head had become fixed in a horizontal plane; he couldn’t keep food down due to the spine cramping his stomach and other organs.
After a procedure Connor’s spine was fused so he nearly sits upright (at 66 degrees). His improved posture has meant he has “outgrown” his wheelchair and car seat.
To donate go to https://www.gofundme.com/helpingconnor.
